Posted on 04/18/2007 4:15:13 PM PDT by goldstategop
From the attacks of 9-11 to Monday's school shooting, after every mass murder there is an overwhelming urge to "do something" to prevent a similar attack.
But since Adam ate the apple and let evil into the world, deranged individuals have existed.
Most of the time they can't be locked up until it's too late. It's not against the law to be crazy – in some jurisdictions it actually makes you more viable as a candidate for public office.
It's certainly not against the law to be an unsociable loner. If it were, Ralph Nader would be behind bars right now, where he belongs. Mass murder is often the first serious crime unbalanced individuals are caught committing – as appears to be in the case of the Virginia Tech shooting.
The best we can do is enact policies that will reduce the death toll when these acts of carnage occur, as they will in a free and open society of 300 million people, most of whom have cable TV.
Only one policy has ever been shown to deter mass murder: concealed-carry laws. In a comprehensive study of all public, multiple-shooting incidents in America between 1977 and 1999, the inestimable economists John Lott and Bill Landes found that concealed-carry laws were the only laws that had any beneficial effect.
And the effect was not insignificant. States that allowed citizens to carry concealed handguns reduced multiple-shooting attacks by 60 percent and reduced the death and injury from these attacks by nearly 80 percent.
Apparently, even crazy people prefer targets that can't shoot back. The reason schools are consistently popular targets for mass murderers is precisely because of all the idiotic "Gun-Free School Zone" laws.
From the people who brought you "zero tolerance," I present the Gun-Free Zone! Yippee! Problem solved! Bam! Bam! Everybody down! Hey, how did that deranged loner get a gun into this Gun-Free Zone?
It isn't the angst of adolescence. Plenty of school shootings have been committed by adults with absolutely no reason to be at the school, such as Laurie Dann, who shot up the Hubbard Woods Elementary School in Winnetka, Ill., in 1988; Patrick Purdy, who opened fire on children at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, Calif., in 1989; and Charles Carl Roberts, who murdered five schoolgirls at an Amish school in Lancaster County, Pa., last year.
Oh, by the way, the other major "Gun-Free Zone" in America is the post office.
But instantly, on the day of the shooting at Virginia Tech, the media were already promoting gun control and pre-emptively denouncing right-wingers who point out that gun control enables murderers rather than stopping them. Liberals get to lobby for gun control, but we're disallowed from arguing back. That's how good their arguments are. They're that good.
Needless to say, Virginia Tech is a Gun-Free School Zone – at least until last Monday. The gunman must not have known. Imagine his embarrassment! Perhaps there should be signs.
Virginia Tech even prohibits students with concealed-carry permits from carrying their guns on campus. Last year, the school disciplined a student for carrying a gun on campus, despite his lawful concealed-carry permit. If only someone like that had been in Norris Hall on Monday, this massacre could have been ended a lot sooner.
But last January, the Virginia General Assembly shot down a bill that would have prevented universities like Virginia Tech from giving sanctuary to mass murderers on college campuses in Virginia by disarming students with concealed-carry permits valid in the rest of the state.
Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker praised the legislature for allowing the school to disarm lawful gun owners on the faculty and student body, thereby surrendering every college campus in the state to deranged mass murderers, saying: "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."
Others disagreed. Writing last year about another dangerous killer who had been loose on the Virginia Tech campus, graduate student Jonathan McGlumphy wrote: "Is it not obvious that all students, faculty and staff would have been safer if (concealed handgun permit) holders were not banned from carrying their weapons on campus?"
If it wasn't obvious then, it is now.
“Coulter is such a clown”
Namecalling is so puerile and easy.
Kindly explain the logic underlying your conclusion, please.
“But since Adam ate the apple and let evil into the world, deranged individuals have existed.”
And liberals too!
Jeffrey Dahmer without the taste for american food.
Well?
No, I’m not aware of that photo. The only other “gun” photo I have is where she’s plinking with a rifle off her back porch.
Good one, Annie!
I like it when she’s a little less shrill, states FACTS and tones down her sarcasm. This is one of her better pieces.
You have to start adding a picture of the Poet Laureate from VA Tech along with the DemonRats. lol
They are emotional children. They never got out of grade school level or high school level emotional stage. They're holding on to it, waiting for ??? something to happen.
So what do the libs want to do? TAKE ANOTHER RIGHT AWAY FROM US, PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT RIGHT OF ALL: THE RIGHT OF SELF-DEFENSE!
And now we have MSNBC showing this nutcase's last statements over and over on network television (fortunately it's MSNBC so only six people are watching...) Sometimes it just gets to be too much. I'm going out tomorrow night and buying another gun. Hear that libs?
Oh yeah.... BUMP FOR ANN COULTER!
Initially they came out and said he was on depression drugs so here was the culprit. Drugs make people do bad things. Then they search his room. No drugs in his room. No more stories about depression drugs.
Unbelievable. Pelosi is the looker of that rat lot!
They want Government protection not individual responsibility. - tom
Thanks for that - I didn't know it was that bad.
If one of my kids had been shot by this loon I would be preparing to sue Virginia Tech and that idiot Hinckler out of existence. A fine and venerable institution yes, but make an example here. They talk and talk about the safety of the ‘children’ but let a walking time bomb into this institution-sanctioned gun free zone.
"Is it not obvious that all students, faculty and staff would have been safer if (concealed handgun permit) holders were not banned from carrying their weapons on campus?"
This guy is too smart for me. What the hell is he saying? What side is he on?
Would someone who knows Ann please, please ask her to release some new up to date pictures of herself??? Every thread about her has the very same pictures. Posters should just write “ditto” instead of posting pictures.
Dial 911, or pick up a 1911 and see which arrives quicker to alleviate the problem.
And two, no matter what the gun laws say, "it is better to be judged by twelve than carried by six."
Not rocket science.
5.56mm
He is saying that students should be allowed to carry concealed handguns, if they have a permit. His words are not very straightforward because of those negatives: “not obvious,” “were not banned.”
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